Senior Players Championship: Couples prevails after rain and pain

Aug. 22, 2011

Fred Couples reacts after hearing he wouldn't have to pay dues after being presented a membership to Westchester Country Club following his playoff victory Sunday at the Constellation Energy Senior Players Championship. / Peter Carr/The Journal News

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For a couple of breathless seconds, he stood in the rough alongside the 17th hole at Westchester Country Club holding that relaxed follow-through, while his golf ball gently dropped from a sky punctuated with storm clouds.

His eyes gave away the story-book ending.

Couples dismissed John Cook three holes into a back-and-forth playoff Sunday after he landed a near-perfect approach within 3 feet on the short par 4 and rolled in the birdie putt.

It was a minor upset. Couples won the Constellation Energy Senior Players Championship just weeks after going to Germany for a procedure to relieve chronic back pain.

"I just felt like it was going to be right there," he said. "The extra rain certainly helped that shot."

The 51-year-old picked up his first major on the Champions Tour along with $405,000 and joined an exclusive club. Jack Nicklaus and Raymond Floyd were previously the only two golfers to win Players titles on the regular and senior circuits.

Couples did have to endure some pain on the way in, and continually backed off shots as the winds blew. It wasn't the back, though.

"My hip is killing me," he said. "I don't know why."

The horn to evacuate in advance of a thunderstorm blew at 11:42 a.m. while the lead group was in the eighth fairway. A nearly two-hour break slowed Couples down. He came back out and immediately took a bogey.

A stubborn wind made the final round difficult for everyone involved.

Couples finished an impressive week with an even-par 71 to finish with an 11-under 273 total.

"I wouldn't say I was playing awesome golf before the rain delay, but it wasn't bad," he said. "After the rain delay, I just didn't feel very good. Maybe I was lucky that the wind blew and it was tough."

Cook finished up with a 1-under 70 to match his longtime friend.

Peter Senior shot a 71 and was very much in the hunt all day, but several critical putts stopped one roll short of the hole. He finished a shot back in third.

"It just was a hard golf course today," said Cook, who's now 0 for 3 in playoffs at Champions Tour majors. "There were some bogeys to be made. ... I didn't have my best stuff, but neither did Fred and neither did Peter. It was a testament to the golf course."

And the weather.

Couples and Cook made two extra trips down the 18th hole almost straight into a howling wind. Both players laid up the first time down and traded pars. Couples reached the green on the par-5 closer the last time down, but three-putted from 40 feet. Cook was still very much alive.

"I could not birdie 18 under any circumstance to save my life the whole week," Couples said. "And even after I knocked it on there, it was not an easy putt. I tried to hit it firm enough so it wouldn't break way to the right or way to the left, and I chose long better than hitting it soft, but I didn't mean to hit it 10 feet by."

So off they went to 17, a short par-4.

Cook found the fairway, but pulled his pitching wedge approach, leaving an 18-foot putt from a difficult angle.

"I gave him an open door, I really did," he said. "I didn't hit a quality shot in there. I still thought I had a chance, it wasn't a tough putt that I had, but late in the day the greens get a little bumpy."

The birdie attempt was not close.

Couples was genuinely excited about the invitation to play with the youngsters next May at The Players Championship, a perk that comes with a win in this event, but he was otherwise calm and collected sitting next to the crystal trophy. He's a big-picture guy now. A cranky back has a way of providing instant perspective.

"You know, I feel great about winning my first senior major," Couples said. "I just hope tomorrow when I wake up I feel better than I do now, and that's the emotional part of it because I've been doing so well."